In my position as Director of the State Government’s Office for Future Related Issues (Büro für Zukunftsfragen, 1999-2017), we set out to promote a culture of participation and self-organisation after realising that traditional government-funded environmental campaigns were not very effective. 

After successfully organising a large-scale participation project to better meet the needs of children in the region (“Kinder in die Mitte” – Children in the Center), we needed to find a more agile and less costly participation format, as many towns and cities didn’t have huge budgets. 

After meeting Jim Rough, we adapted his Wisdom Council model for the European context and since 2006, over 100 councils have been organised in Austria, Italy and Germany. 

The Citizens’ Council involves randomly selected citizens in conversations facilitated by Dynamic Facilitation. The results are then presented to the public, stakeholders, and members of the administration and government at an event called a Citizen Café, where the results are reviewed and improved. (Buergerrat.net) (Center For Wise Democracy) (Axiom News ). 

We also set up an Art of Hosting hotspot and trained more than a thousand moderators.

An offshoot of this is the Projektschmiede initiative, which fosters collaboration between the community and individuals or organisations with project ideas that promote the common good. Since its launch in 2014, more than 500 such half-day project design workshops have taken place and are now being replicated in neighbouring countries.